The following article is from the March / April 2004 edition of the NZSG Dunedin Branch newsletter - with thanks to Heather Bray. Also thanks to John Wilson for the names from the inquest.

FIRE DISASTER AT SEACLIFF

In 1884 the Seacliff Lunatic Asylum was opened at Seacliff, 28 kilometres up
the coast from Dunedin. It provided housing for 500 patients and 50 staff,
and at the time was the largest public building in New Zealand.

At about 9.45 pm on Tuesday 8 December, 1942, fire broke out in Ward 5. This ward
was a two-storeyed wooden building which had been added onto the original
stone building when the hospital was expanded at the end of the nineteenth
century. In Ward 5 were 39 women mental patients, all locked into either
single rooms or the 20-bed dormitory. Most windows were locked, and could
only be opened by a key from inside. It was during the Second World War, and
there was a shortage of nursing staff. There was no nurse on duty in the
ward at night, although checks were made by staff from other wards every
hour. The fire was first noticed by a male attendant who raised the alarm
and ran to bring the fire hoses and reels from the small hospital fire
station to a fire hydrant near Ward 5.
He was able to save one patient by pulling off the grating over her window
and dragging her out. Another patient was rescued from the first floor. Both
survivors were in rooms which did not have locked shutters on the windows.

The hospital's fire fighters tried to put out the fire, but it was too
fierce, and within an hour only ashes remained of Ward 5. However they were
able to stop the flames from spreading to other wooden buildings. 37 of the
39 patients in Ward 5 died in the fire with the cause of death being given
as suffocation. A commission of inquiry found that the wooden building of
Ward 5 was dangerous, and once the fire had started, it spread through the
building very quickly. There were no automatic fire alarms in Ward 5, unlike
other newer parts of the hospital. Any alarm in the building had to be
raised by unlocking a cabinet and pushing a button to start the fire alarm.

The commission of inquiry criticised the design of the building and the way
in which the windows were shuttered and locked from the inside at night. It
recommended the installation of sprinkler systems in all psychiatric
institutions. The commission also felt that there was not enough staff on
duty to supervise the patients at night. The hospital fire brigade were
praised for their action on the night, which prevented the loss of other
lives.

The cause of the fire was not discovered and remains a mystery. There were
no fireplaces in the ward and no electric radiators and the building was
steam-heated. The ward was lit by electricity and there were a kitchen and
dining room in the ward but the actual location of the start of the fire
could not be found. A new mental hospital was opened at nearby Cherry Farm
in 1954.

The Seacliff Mental Hospital fire was the worst in New Zealand's history
until Ballantyne's fire in Christchurch, five years later. A tree was
planted with a plaque in memory of the 37 woman who died in the blaze.